Regarding Female
Marinesby
Philipp GresseI write this
in response to Sticking Up for the Girls:
In Defense of Female Space Marines. I am not to trying to convince
anyone to agree with me; instead, I would like to give visitors to the
Jungle a different viewpoint on female Marines, and to clear up some
misconceptions.

I
am one of the “No, ma’am” people on this issue. Sure, female Space Marines
offer nice conversion possibilities (like Kenton’s very own Raja
Khandar Madu), and it would be rude to refuse to play against such
an army, not to mention to insult someone because of it. But I would not
accept an army with female Marines as 100% true to the Warhammer 40,000
background. I would consider it a “fun” army, like those based on popular
TV, movie, or comic books (for example, see Patrick Eibel’s Star
WarsDaemonhunter army). Nice
conversions, cool armies, probably enjoyable to play against—but not true
to the 40K background.

Here are the
reasons why I (and probably some other people) think that female Marines
are not true to the 40K background.

Reason #1: The
background says soThe article
about the creation of a Space Marine in the first Index Astartes
book clearly states that the Space Marine implants are not compatible with
females. It can be speculated about how much sense this text makes considering
real science, but we could just as well question the function of a plasma
gun or a vortex grenade. The background says the process won’t work on
women. What more needs to be said?

If the people
in the Imperium who usually are responsible for the geneseed can’t make
it work on females, then for sure, a lonely chapter somewhere in the galaxy
can’t come up with a method by itself. Not to mention that it would be
heresy to tinker with the geneseed that was given to them by the Emperor
himself (who apparently also could not make it work on females).

Reason #2: Space
Marines are like monks Every chapter
might have different styles and traditions, but they all (even Space Wolves)
have one thing in common: a monastic organization. Their fortresses are
like monasteries, they have Chaplains, they call themselves “brothers,”
they pray to the Emperor. Space Marines are monks, perhaps a mix between
monks and knights. And monks—all monks—are male. Could a woman be a monk?
No—she would be a nun, and in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, nuns are Sisters
of Battle.

To make your
Space Marines less like monks would not be true to the 40K background,
and to do it so you can justify female Marines would be, well, even less
true to the background.

Reason #3: They
are called “Sons of the Emperor”And probably
for a reason. There are the “Thousand Sons” and the “Sons of Horus.” Sometimes,
the Space Wolves commanders call their men the “Sons of Russ.” Other chapters
might also do this. By contrast to this, the Sisters of Battle are sometimes
referred to as the “Daughters of the Emperor.” So apparently we have the
Sons and the Daughters, and there is a distinction between them.

Reason #4: No
female Marines are mentioned in the background Besides the
hundreds of Space Marine stories that can be found in codices and White
Dwarfs, there are two especially noticeable narratives: the first “Ragnar”
novel and the older novel, Space Marine. Both deal with the
recruiting and the initiation process of a Space Marine. If Space Marines
did recruit females, then this would have been the place to mention them.
To see a female Aspirant compared with the male Aspirant hero would also
have made for a pretty interesting story. But there are no female Aspirants
mentioned. And there are also no female Marines mentioned in the hundreds
of other Space Marine stories. This alone is a sign that in the 40K background,
there simply are no female Marines.

One interesting
side note about the Ragnar book: at one point, he encounters a female Inquisitor,
and he wonders how his view towards females has changed now that he has
become a Space Marine. It’s only a small bit, and not necessarily important
to this issue, but interesting nonetheless.

Now I would
like to address some misconceptions some gamers may have concerning the
issue of female Marines:

“The Imperium
discriminates against females”This is not
true, or rather, not explicitly stated in the background. There are several
examples, especially in the Black Library novels, of female soldiers or
females in high ranking positions: the female soldiers in the “Gaunt’s
Ghosts” novels or the “Last Chancer” novels, the female Inquisitor in the
second “Ghosts” novel, and the female Planetary Governor in the Ultramarine
novel Nightbringer.

Remember that
in the Imperium, planets are governed independently and have independent
states of civilisation. The Imperium has no control over this. The Imperium
only interacts with the planetary culture if they are not loyal to the
Emperor or if they are not paying their tributes. It may well be that,
on some worlds, females indeed are discriminated against, but that has
nothing to do with the Imperium and it surely doesn’t affect the Space
Marines.

“Not allowing
female Marines will drive women away from the hobby”I cannot agree
with this assessment. Most wargamers, whether they play historical-, fantasy-
or sci-fi-wargames, are men. This is nothing that will surprise any woman
who tries to get in touch with the hobby. It is also not true that people
only want to play with models from their own sex. Men play Sisters of Battle
or Amazons. Surely a woman can get into an all-male army. In historical
wargames, chances are that all of the armies are male.

Also, while
Space Marines surely are the main focus of the Warhammer 40,000 game, not
all people want to play them. I know several players who outright despise
Space Marines and stick to their Eldar or Orks. If a woman is interested
in 40K, then she will find a race or army she likes. If she likes the style
and stories of Space Marines, then she might be a little disappointed when
she learns that there are no female Marines, but if she previously liked
Space Marines, she will not suddenly dislike them.

“GW made female
Space Marine models once”This is not
true. The models in question were “Female
Adventurers” in power armor, which does not make them Space Marines.
Note that according to Solegends,
in the same White Dwarf (WD 99) where the “Adventurers” were presented,
GW also presented new Space Marine models. The females in power armor were
not put with the Space Marines, but instead with the Adventurers. So they
obviously are not Space Marines. I read in a 40K forum that apparently
some blisters with these were accidentally labelled “Space Marines,” so
perhaps this is where the misconception came from.

“Warhammer 40K
itself is sexist”Let’s have
a quick look at the different 40K factions:

Imperial
Guard, Eldar, Dark Eldar, and Tau. These armies are “mixed,” having
male and female soldiers. This is most apparent with Eldar and Dark Eldar,
where every 4th or 5th model is female and some elite units are all-female.
This is partly because of the fact that Eldar and Dark Eldar armies consist
largely of “civilians.”

The Imperial
Guard is (in theory) also mixed, though this is not so apparent from the
available figures. Female soldiers are mentioned in the stories and novels
and there are some metal figures, like the two from the Last Chancers,
the one female Ghost or the Games Day Female Commissar. This might not
be enough for some people, but I think it is understandable why GW did
not include female models on the IG plastic sprues, forcing all players
to use a female model for every 5th Soldier.

As mentioned
in the Fire Warrior novel, Tau also use female Fire Caste
Warriors. As for the lack of obviously “female” Tau models, perhaps they
cannot be recognised beneath their heavy armour or perhaps they are visually
indistinguishable from males (like other species of animals).

Orks, Tyranids,
and Necrons. These creatures are (for our purposes) sexless. Orks grow
from mushrooms, Tyranids are just insectoids, and though it’s probable
that the Necrontyr souls that power the Necron Warriors were from males
and females alike, now they’re all just machines.

Space Marines
and Chaos Space Marines. These are the all-male armies: about 1 million
loyal Marines and an unknown number of Traitors. Not much for a whole galaxy.

Sisters
of Battle. In contrast to the Space Marines, we also have an all-female
army. Sisters Orders probably are somewhere between 10 to 100 more times
as numerous as Space Marines.

So, in total,
I would say it doesn’t look that bad in the 40K Universe. Most armies are
mixed, some are sexless, and only three are gender-exclusive. One might
suggest that it would be discriminating towards men if there were female
Marines, because 40K then would have one all-female army but no all-male
army.

It is true
that the focus of Warhammer 40K lies heavily with the Space Marines, and
I myself once said that the game might well be called “Marinehammer 40,000.”
But in this case, claiming that females are overlooked is not totally fair.
There are other game systems set in the 40K universe, like Armageddon or
Battle Fleet Gothic, in which Marines are not the most important army.
Suddenly, you see a whole universe with an all-male force of 1 million
and an all-female force of 100 million.

Some may claim
that it is still unfair towards females, because the “all-male” soldiers
(Marines) are stronger than the “all-female” soldiers (Sisters of Battle).
I guess that is true. But the Sisters of Battle were developed and fleshed
out quite some time after the Space Marine army list. GW decided to give
them their own personality instead of making them the equivalent of female
Space Marines. If GW had not done that, and had made them like Female Marines,
then there would be no “Sisters of Battle” today. Would that be better?

ConclusionSo, I hope
you can understand why some people won’t accept female Marines. They have
been accustomed to the “fact” that all Marines are male since Warhammer
first came out in the 80’s. But, of course, nothing justifies being rude
toward people who like female Marines and use them in their chapters. Just
because an army background does not 100% conform to the stated canon, it
doesn’ t mean you can’t play against them (or even worse—gasp—side-by-side).
Boo to those rude people!